Police provided no details about the suspect during a brief news conference. The Columbus Dispatch reported the suspect was wounded and treated at a hospital.

The Columbus Police Department is investigating the shootings.

Republican Gov. John Kasich, who lives with his family in a nearby township, tweeted that he was "very saddened to learn of the deaths of two of my hometown police officers." He asked Ohio residents to join him in "lifting up these officers' families in prayer."

He added, that they "both gave their life for the protection of others and that's what they lived and breathed."

Trea Horne, 17, told The Associated Press he was upstairs in the townhome he shares with his mother when he heard five or six gunshots early Saturday afternoon. He said he came downstairs and saw police cars racing to a townhome directly across the street.

A couple had moved into the home about eight months ago, he said. "They're always arguing and fighting," said Horne, who graduated from Westerville South High School in December.

Jennifer Ripperger, 46, said her neighborhood of townhomes has a mix of owners and renters. She said heard police pulling up on Saturday and watched as officers nearly dragged firefighters toward the residence where the officers had been shot.

"I've never known anything like this to happen," said Chad Temple, 32, who lives directly behind the townhome where the shooting happened. "It just kind of surprises me (that) in Westerville this happened."

Westerville, on the northeast side of Columbus, is a suburb of about 39,000 with a per capita income well above the rest of Ohio. It regularly tops lists of the country's best suburbs.